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For some reason I haven't really felt like writing recently.  That doesn't mean I haven't had inspiration to write.  Quite the contrary in fact while not wanting to write I have had several topics that I wanted to write about pop in my head, but have never quite got them out.  So now I'll do the blog equivalent of a pav bhaji or minestrone soup (that is put several unconnected ideas into one post just to clean out the "fridge"). 

Doubt

A few weekends ago we saw this movie.  Wow.  Not particularly intense, but still somewhat unnerving and somewhat crazy.  I don't think you can really give away the plot of the movie, because it has a bit of an open ended conclusion.  However, without giving anything away the premise of the movie is that Meryl Streep is the headmistress at a 1960s Catholic school and she has a bone to pick with Philip Seymour Hoffman who is the priest of the parish.  The thing that stayed with me after the movie is how manipulative and single minded Meryl Streep's character is.  She would stop at nothing to see her desired outcome achieved.  Even when the cards were stacked against her and it was clear that she was wrong she still manipulated the situation. 

As a side note I have to say that Meryl Streep never ceases to amaze me.  She has played some truly villanous and evil characters (Manchurian Candidate and arguably The Devil Wears Prada), but she has also played some beautiful characters (upcoming Julie and Julia and Music of the Heart).  She definitely has some depth. 

Point Break Live

At the other end of the spectrum of acting is a complete ridiculous and campy theatrical stage version of Point Break.  I really wanted to see this for my birthday, but we had to wait until we could get tickets.  It was hysterically horrible.  I loved it.  If you haven't seen the movie I think the live version would be pretty crappy, but even with some recollection of the original it was pretty good.  The HyWy felt it was just an excuse for guys to run around, act like idiots, and throw beer on each other/the crowd.  The highlight of the whole experience was watching them cast the role of Keanu Reeves from the audience with lines to be read from cue cards so that the acting most closely resembled his bodacious one. 

Sandman

This really deserves a post of it's own and if I can come up with something better then I might move it.  I finally finished the epic 10 part Sandman series and it was awesome.  I don't know how it was written or how it was envisioned, but I'm pretty sure Neil Gaiman hadn't forseen the whole series as one when he was writing.  This is part of the beauty of the series that he was able to weave such a complicated and complete story together over so many episodes.  The whole series is 75 episodes and by the time it ends there are references to characters and events from the very beginning.  There were also different artists who contributed to the each episode so that there are a variety of visual styles some of which are definitely better than others.  I think this is a series that I will likely purchase down the road to have, because it was well written and visually stunning.  Bear in mind by no stretch of the imagination do I recommend this for everyone, because it is at points very graphic (violently and sexually).